10 COVID-19 cases in 2 days at border

There are 10 cases of COVID-19 to report in managed isolation in New Zealand since our last media statement on Friday. One of these cases is classified as historical and deemed not infectious.

There are no new cases in the community.

New border cases

New border case details

Arrival dateFromViaPositive test day/reasonManaged isolation/quarantine location

5 Sept

Pakistan

United Arab Emirates

Completed isolation/2 negative tests. Tested now for pre-departure travel

Christchurch

Note: This person completed isolation and returned two negative test results in September. The person was recently retested as a pre-travel requirement and returned a weak positive indicative of an historical infection.

3 Jan

Japan

Around day 12/routine testing

Auckland

7 Jan

United States

Around day 7/contact of a case

Christchurch

9 Jan

UK

United Arab Emirates

Around day 1/contact of a case

Auckland

10 Jan

Scotland

United Arab Emirates

Around day 5/symptomatic

Auckland

12 Jan

United Arab Emirates

Malaysia

Around day 3/routine testing

Auckland

12 Jan

Yet to be determined

United Arab Emirates

Around day 3/routine testing

Auckland

14 Jan

United Kingdom

United Arab Emirates

Around day 0/1/routine testing

Auckland

14 Jan

South Africa

United Arab Emirates

Around day 1/contact of a case

Auckland

14 Jan

South Africa

United Arab Emirates

Around day 1/contact of a case/symptoms

Auckland

Four cases have now recovered bringing the total number of active cases in New Zealand to 82. Our total number of confirmed cases is 1,900.

The total number of tests processed by laboratories to date is 1,463,890.

On Friday 3,325 tests were processed and yesterday there were 3,488 tests processed.

The seven-day rolling average up to yesterday is 3,635 tests processed.

Over the summer break the Ministry of Health continues to encourage people with any COVID-19 symptoms to get assessed for testing by contacting their doctor or calling Healthline. Healthline is free and available 24/7. Medical professionals are best placed to assess whether a test is needed.

New pre-departure testing requirement

The first travellers from the UK and US under the new requirements for pre-departure testing arrived into New Zealand over the weekend, with Customs reporting very high levels of compliance.

The Ministry recognises the extra effort required to comply and thanks these individuals very much for their contribution to helping keep New Zealand’s borders safe.

From 11.59 pm Friday, travellers from the United States and United Kingdom must produce a negative test result for COVID-19 or a signed medical exemption upon landing in New Zealand.

This measure is in addition to travellers arriving from the United States and the United Kingdom requiring a COVID-19 test within 24 hours of arriving into managed isolation and staying in their rooms until a negative test result is returned.

Pre-departure testing will soon be expanded to include all countries excluding Australia, Antarctica and some Pacific Island nations. These additional requirements have been put in place to further strengthen our border, to protect New Zealand from COVID-19 and new emerging variants.

More detailed information for travellers can be found on the United Against COVID-19 website.

NZ COVID Tracer

NZ COVID Tracer now has 2,446,396 registered users.

Poster scans have reached 154,086,831 and users have now created more than 6,226,200 manual diary entries.

Ministry of Health updates

The Ministry will continue to provide updates about cases and actions taken in response.

The frequency of reporting continues to reflect the routine nature of the cases appearing at the border in recent returnees in managed isolation facilities.

The next release will be on Monday.

/Public Release. View in full here.